The school year has started, and that means there’s a good chance that children and teachers will line up in front of their school to have their photograph taken. It’s a tradition that goes back to the earliest days of child photography and public schools.
It was not until Reconstruction that Florida had a public school system. Florida’s 1868 constitution mandated that the state “shall provide a uniform system of Common Schools, and a University, and shall provide for the liberal maintenance of the same. Instruction in them shall be free.”
Volusia County’s first public school was in New Smyrna Beach
Despite this mandate, Volusia County didn’t have a public school until 1872, when volunteers built the first one-room schoolhouse in New Smyrna Beach. Daytona didn’t officially have a free public school until 1874. DeLand, not until 1877. And even those earliest schools took the time to photograph students in front of the wooden schoolhouses.
Read more: “The Odyssey of an American School System: Volusia County Schools – 1854 to 2000”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Line up for historical school pictures in Volusia
Reporting by Mark Lane, Special to The News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mark Lane, Special to The News-Journal | USA TODAY Network
